


When Life Plays Fair

by WhiskyNotTea



Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Masquerade Party, NSFW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 23:22:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13087593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhiskyNotTea/pseuds/WhiskyNotTea
Summary: Jamie and Claire meet at a masquerade party, and soon realize that none of them has forgotten...





	When Life Plays Fair

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been written for the Outlander Secret Santa 2017 in Tumblr as a gift for the @thewhitelady.

 

Claire checked her “lady’s card”, where men’s names already filled the designated blanks for the first half of her night’s dances. Well, if this whole party wasn’t ridiculous enough; a Victorian-themed masquerade party, along with all the nuances that went with balls in those years. Men had to pre-fill their names to get to dance with the ladies they wanted. And ladies had to dance with anybody who had chosen them. _Great, just bloody great_. She looked over the names again, each one next to a designated dance. They were all couple dances: waltz, polka, schottische and two-step.

Next to the third song, a polka dance, Claire noticed the name of Frank Randall. _God, not him again! How could he still insist on trying for a date?_ He was nice and kind but so damned boring! If Claire would hear once again about his ancestors and their bloody achievements she would rather be hanged with her laces.

Geillis came to stand by her side, glowing in her voluminous emerald green dress – the same color with her eyes. She smiled with mischief and Claire gave her a stern look, before saying in a similarly serious voice: “You owe me big time after tonight”

“Oh, aye, sure I do” Geillis replied making it more than obvious that she didn’t mean a word. “Cheer up, girl. Almost everybody from the university is here. We’re gonna have fun. Girls just wanna have fun, right?”

“When the working day is done,” Claire murmured and smiled, readjusting her impressive venetian mask.

 

It was her fifth year in the University of Edinburgh and she had managed to skip attending all the previous masquerade balls. This year though, Geillis had been so persistent that Claire was sure if she didn’t assent her friend would just drag her to the party with pure force. Geilis had even bought Claire a dress and a mask. The voluminous skirts felt a bit awkward at the beginning and the laces of her corset were tighter than she’d like, but Claire loved the way she looked in the dress.

It was a flamboyant blue silken dress with 2 layers of petticoats and an impressive square bust, enhanced by the V-shaped corset she wore underneath. The pagoda sleeves were falling on Claire’s wrists and she could feel the volume of the dress flowing around her with each movement. She couldn’t admit that aloud, but Geillis had done her best to find the most Victorian era accurate dresses. At least with all those layers on her body nobody could come closer than it felt comfortable. In addition, the venetian dark silver mask with engraved flowers and a few beautiful gemstones was perfect to conceal her glass face and get her through the night.

The dancing began and Claire saw the first man coming towards her, to claim his spot on her card and dance their waltz. “Girls wanna have fun, Claire” she heard Geillis’ voice in her mind and smiled to the kind stranger.

All her partners turned out to be courteous and amiable enough. It was more than one hour later when Claire thanked her last partner and headed towards the tables with the refreshments. Dancing had improved her mood and getting rid of Frank after only one dance had brightened her up. She took a glass of wine and stared around, noticing the architectural details of the Playfair Library Hall. The diffuse light and people dancing in these old rhythms made her feel she had been transferred two hundred years back. She studied the spectacular ceiling for a while and then moved to stand in front of one of the long windows that covered almost the whole wall.

 

The night was tranquil and the moon shone almost full in the sky. Claire took a deep breath, savoring the moment and drank her wine. Lost in her thoughts and with the Persian carpet muffling any sound, she didn’t hear the approaching footsteps.

“It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?”

Surprised, she almost spilled the wine on her dress.

“Be careful, lass, ye wouldna want to spoil that beautiful dress of yours”

“Hmm no, indeed I wouldn’t”

Claire turned to face the stranger. The first thing she noticed was his deep blue eyes looking down in her own. His wide lips smiled and he bowed to her.

“Jamie Fraser, your servant Madam”

He was tall, with red hair just touching his nape, wide shoulders and an impressive stature. His blue trousers, the blue long coat and grey vest only but underlined his athletic built. Claire realized that she was staring.

“Claire Beauchamp, glad to make your acquaintance” she said in her Victorian era role, curtsied and gave her hand to him.

He took it and kissed her knuckles.

“Will you honor me with a dance, my lady?” he asked with a lopsided smile.

“It will be my pleasure, sir.”

He took her glass, drained it and led her to the dancing floor.

 

They danced the first song, without words but with eyes locked. He’d placed his right hand gently on her waist and entangled the fingers of his left hand with hers. It felt easy and natural. They focused on each other’s eyes, sky and whisky, and Claire felt her heartbeat quickening. Her lungs tried to keep up, to provide her heart with the much needed oxygen, but all she was inhaling was him. She knew that being mere inches away from her, he could feel her short, fast breaths. The four minutes of the song felt like a few moments for Claire and she couldn’t contain her need for more. She expected a “thank you” or a funny line from him after the last notes of the music. But he didn’t say anything and didn’t move away. Instead, his hand on her waist tightened while he drew her flush to him with the next slow dance. She was heated by his touch, his warmth contagious. Jamie leaned towards her and she felt his breath on her ear.

“I was waiting for this moment the whole night.”

Claire felt goosebumps forming along her body. “Did you, now?”

“Aye,” he simply stated and Claire could hear the truth vibrating in his voice.

“You didn’t fill your name in my lady’s card. You could just do that, you know,” she proposed, but didn’t turn her head to look at him, afraid that her face will show way too much.

“I didna think you’d like that.”

“Is that so?”

“Better to ask you, aye?”

Claire laughed. “Aye,” she replied and looked at his smiling eyes for a moment before closing her own.

He couldn’t be real. He was so perfect that it must have been her imagination trying to brighten up her night.

The second song was finished, but neither relaxed their grip on the other. When music filled the air again, she raised her head from his shoulder and looked at him again.

“So, how haven’t I seen you before? What is it that you study?” she tried to say nonchalantly.

“I am on my third year, Linguistics.”

“Fifth year, Medicine.”

“I guess that suffices for an answer.”

“I guess it does.”

They resumed their dance until Jamie broke the silence with his deep voice. “I never saw you in one of these parties before.”

“I never was in one. My friend insisted on coming tonight. I didn’t want to.”

“Mphmm… Then I have to find her and thank her, Sassenach.”

 

_Sassenach._

Claire felt her heart squeeze. She turned her eyes immediately to his and stopped abruptly her dancing when she saw him leaning towards her, his eyes glinting with mischief mingled with desire. His body was tensing and hers, out of control, responded to him. His lips were an inch away from hers and feeling his warm breath, hers parted in their own volition. Seeing that, he covered the distance.

His kiss was slow and gentle but deep enough for Claire to feel a restrained passion boiling in him. When she felt him withdraw she leaned to him a bit more, unready to stop, her hands entangled behind his neck and pulling him to her again.

She felt him smiling and when they paused for breath he looked at her with honest eyes and, after hesitating for a moment, he proposed in a husky voice to leave. Her face must have given him the answer he searched for, because he didn’t wait for her vocal one. Before turning around to lead her away from the dancers and towards the outer doors she saw his lopsided smile again and his eyes burning with desire.

On her way out Claire saw Frank watching at the pair of them incredulously. The moment he started walking towards them she tightened her grasp on Jamie. “Hurry,” she said and Jamie’s stride carried her away from Frank and everyone else in that room.

 

After a small pause to collect their coats and scarves from the adjacent room, they were out in the street. The moment they left the building, Jamie turned to her again and although his touch was gentle, his body’s weight pinned her on the cold stone wall. His lips were immediately on hers, this time with a hunger and intensity burning in them. She felt his tongue on her upper lip and opened her mouth to taste him. Her hands were in the locks of his hair, keeping him close, his warmth and smell intoxicating. Claire felt her body burning despite the crisp Scottish air and her knees buckled. He was supporting her with one hand on her waist, while the other was roaming over her body, trying to feel her through the layers of her clothing.

She felt his warm lips on her neck and couldn’t keep her moan. With a grunt, he stopped and after licking her earlobe he whispered “I was dreaming about this, Sassenach.”

“About what?” she needed to know more.

“Kissing you, touching you. Hearing you moaning from my touch. Being around you again.”

His voice was low and he was now facing her, his eyes locked on hers. He moved one of his hands to caress her cheek and removed the mask from her face.

Seeing her confused glance, he smiled softly.

“I knew who ye are, Claire. Not just tonight. All this fucking time.”

“You remember? Me?”

“Aye, of course I do. Ye didna ever leave my mind, Sassenach.” His voice was honest, the truth in his eyes genuine. “And as I collect, ye remember me too.” He continued with a small smile.

“Well, you were my first case during my clinical practice. I couldn’t forget.”

“Is that the only reason then?”

“Sure, what else did you think?” Claire teased but her mind was on Jamie’s days in the hospital and their interactions. There was always something special between them, something different from everything else she’d felt. It was still there, now, rekindled and stronger.

She felt her heartbeat loud and fast and decreased the distance of their bodies to lightly bit his lip. He groaned and kissed her once again.

“Aye, this is exactly what I think.”

 

When they reluctantly ended their kiss, eyes still fogged from lust, Jamie took Claire’s hand and led her through the wet Edinburgh streets. It had started drizzling now, the tiny drops captured in her hair and eyelashes. She was ravishing. Claire was always beautiful, even in her plain green scrubs but today, in this blue dress, with her hair pinned up and her long earrings pointing out her endless neck, she was irresistible.

Looking at her from the corner of his eye, walking beside him, he couldn’t repress his wanting. The moment they were underneath the bridge where the road was not illuminated, he pulled her to him again and kissed this wonderful neck, biting and sucking, until his mark was on her. God, what this woman was doing to him! His hands were on her plum bottom and he knew how it was supposed to feel, he had dreamt of it numerous nights but tonight, when he could finally touch her she was layered with all these clothes! Frustrated, he opened the first buttons of her coat to expose her chest. The dress had the perfect cut and he licked the exposed part of her breasts, before nibbling her ivory skin with his teeth. The inarticulate sounds she let made him shaking with desire. He could hardly believe that she was there with him.

The voices that echoed in the passage made him come back to his senses. Three men were coming towards them and had Jamie cursing his ill luck. He raised his himself and covered Claire with his body while bending his head towards her so she could feel his ragged breath caressing her ear. When the strangers passed by he could definitely feel her silent laughter through the light movements of her chest. Taking a small step back he looked in her smiling eyes and grinned at her. Claire nodded towards the street and after giving him a quick kiss, they continued their way.

It was after a few moments that she turned to him.

“Where?” she said with shinning eyes.

“My place is a bit more than half a mile from here” Jamie said, seriously wondering why the hell he lived so far from the Playfair Library Hall and how he would restrain himself until they reach a more private place.

“Well, mine is just 5 minutes from here. That settles things, no?”

Jamie’s step quickened the moment he heard her reply.

“Keeping this pace though, we may do it in 3 minutes,” she laughed, hoisting up her dress that hindered her moves.

Jamie gave her a lopsided grin. “Aye, let’s do that.”

 

Her apartment was at the 7th floor of a simple grey building, with the exception of the three columns on the ground floor floor, painted with beautiful colored graffiti.

“My roommate did this,” Claire said while reaching for the keys in her clutch. Jamie gave her a coy look before she continued, “She still is at the party. I don’t think she’ll return tonight, if her plan goes well, that is.”

“Oh, a girl with a plan for the night; she sounds methodical. Did ye have a plan as well?” Jamie said following her up the few stairs towards the entrance.

“In fact I did. I would find an excuse to leave early and come back home to relax with a book.”

“Weel, you found your excuse, but it seems I just ruined the rest of yer plan, lass”. Jamie thought for a moment that maybe he should leave.

“Seems you did,” Claire responded with a cocky eyebrow that made all his second thoughts vanish. He wanted her. He needed her. As soon as possible and may he be damned for it.

“I’m afraid the elevator is out of order,” Claire said when they entered the building. “They had replaced the buttons with a fancy voice recognition system but” she stopped, looked at him and suddenly burst out laughing.

“But?” he lowered his eyebrows in confusion, but couldn’t erase the smile from his face. Her laugh was one of the most beautiful sounds he’d ever heard and he almost regretted interrupting it.

“But it couldn’t recognize the Scottish accent so nobody could use it.” She chickled. “Apart from me and a lad at the third floor, who comes from London! Everyone complained so now they re-install the old-fashioned buttons version. God I love Scotland!” She rolled her eyes and raised her head to the sky and he laughed with her, before pulling her towards him with his arms around her waist.

“Glad ye do,” he said and kissed her. “So, how many floors?”

“Seven. But judging from all these muscles,” she said and lightly touched his arm with her finger, “It’ll be a piece of cake for you”.

 

It took them more than five minutes to reach her door and when they finally did their breathing was strained - and not from the ascent. They had stopped several times at the staircase and on the previous floors with either Jamie or Claire pushed against a wall.

Arriving at the seventh floor, Claire opened her door and led him inside. Her apartment was small, with modern furniture - simple and practical. The light from the street didn’t reach this floor and the moonlight was barely enough to see the lines of her body. She came close to him so he could hear her breath and she started unbuttoning her coat with slow, precise movements till it fell on the floor. When she finished doing the same to his, his patience was spent. Kissing her hard, he raised her in his arms.

“Which one?” he said huskily, nodding towards the two bedroom doors.

“The right one.”

 

He moved slowly, fighting his rush, afraid he would bump on the furniture and they would both end up on the floor. When he reached her door she took her hands from his neck and opened it. The moon was now clear on the sky, washing them with its silver light. Jamie walked towards the bed, carefully left her sitting on its side and knelt in front of her. He tucked a stray lock of her hair behind her ear, slowly tracing a path from her ear to her collarbone. Her skin was soft under his finger and he wanted to feel it on his lips. In an instant, his mouth was on her neck and his hands were at her back to find her zipper, to expose more of her. Once he found it, he unzipped her dress slowly, feeling her heartbeat going faster with anticipation. When the dress was unzipped, he moved his hands on her shoulders and then her arms to remove it. It was puddling around her waist when Jamie realized that she was wearing a corset underneath. He looked accusingly up into her eyes, as if she wore it on purpose to test his will.

“Geillis was extremely happy to find us an outfit so close to the 19th century,” she kind of apologized.

“I am not,” he growled.

“I can tell”. Claire grabbed his curls and pulled him towards her to fortify him with a kiss.

 

He moved from her lips to her breasts and after kissing the exposed skin he started undoing the laces - the countless laces - of her corset. When he was done, he just stood there staring at her.

With her back on the window she had a silver halo around her brown curls and her skin was shining with an eerie glow. She was magical.

“Selkie,” he whispered, enchanted by her and staying stone-still in his reverie.

When Claire moved her hand to cover herself, he realized that time hadn’t stopped as he thought. Jamie was faster, taking her hand into his and shaking his head.

“No. No, Claire.” He took a deep breath. “God, you’re so beautiful. You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

 

He took her lips in his and kissed her again, with a reverence he’d never felt before. She was finally there, in front of him. Not a creation of his imagination, not a dream, but the real her. He was trying to approach her for so long, yearning for her from the day he met her at the Hospital. He was picturing how they’d be together for such a devastating amount of time that now that he had her, he shivered with gratitude. Filled with a wondrous admiration intermingled with a fearful desire, he felt that the intensity of his feelings was going to burst out of him.

Trying hard to control his feelings and unable to talk, he moved her in the middle of the bed, kissing her mouth and playfully licking her neck. Once she was on her back he moved his attention towards her breasts and keeping his own desire under control, he licked and bit around her hard nipples, teasing her until he felt her groaning underneath him. He took then her nipple in his mouth, flicking his tongue on it and then sucking it hard while his hand moved to her other breast mimicking the moves of his tongue. She was breathing heavily and her moans drove him crazy. He slowly moved his hand to her waist and followed its direction with his lips, leaving goosebumbs all over her body. With both his hands he removed her dress and the numerous skirts underneath and felt his heart stop when he saw that she was now stark naked.

 

“My turn,” Claire said and raised herself to sit on her knees.

She unbuttoned his vest and his shirt and he couldn’t stop his hands from caressing her all the while. She bit his bottom lip and then nipped lightly his neck. Her hands were on his chest, rubbing his nipples before tenderly moving towards his back.

“How is it?” she whispered and her eyes where searching for his approval to go on.

“Much better. Doesna hurt anymore,” Jamie said, giving his consent to her to continue.

She surprised him when she rose and walked around him, sitting gingerly on the bed behind him. He felt her fingers, light as feathers, flowing on the expanse of his back. She traced his scars and then kissed them, ever so gently, paying homage to each one of them. He shook with acceptance and realized that he was shattered all this time, till right this moment - with her.

Claire had the power to heal him; last year was his body and tonight his soul. He turned around and with both hands on her face he looked into her whisky eyes and let all his feelings show. His adoration, his longing, his love. When he saw not only compassion, but love and desire in her eyes he was filled with relief. He kissed her again, liberated from his fears and pains, with the want of an imprisoned man for freedom.

Their kiss became fierce and greedy in mere moments. There was nothing else in the world but the two of them.

 

“I want you, Claire. Will ye have me?”

“Yes. Yes, I’ll have you.”

 

Claire’s hands were already fumbling with his flies and he grabbed her waist with one arm to lay her on the bed. He was on top of her, savoring her sweet mouth while she removed his loose pants using her legs dexterously. Her hand traveled from his collarbones, to his chest and further down, reaching his boxers till she felt him, painfully hard under her fingers. His groan when she touched him almost covered her whisper to remove the last layer between them. He immediately complied and felt her opening her legs -these endless legs- for him.

“Come to me Jamie,” she whispered.

Opening his eyes to look at her, he lowered himself just above her and with a slow move drove himself inside her. The way he felt surpassed every imagination his mind could ever create.

They sighed together, one body, one soul.

He started moving slowly, filling her while she filled every empty space inside him. His hand was on her cheek, her own entangled in his hair, their eyes locked.

Their slow, tender pace magnified all the sensations and was gradually transformed in a wilder one. Claire started breathing heavily and when he saw her biting her bottom lip he couldn’t resist taking it into his, sucking her soft and full lips. His hands traveled all over her body, his mind confused in which part he should attend to. Claire crossed her legs behind his waist, one of her hands on his nape and the other on his ass, aiding him in keeping their rhythm. With each of his thrusts she was moving her hips against him, trying to find him, eager to be one. Her moans drove him harder and his body moved faster. It was fierce and consuming and he was giving everything he had to this woman, to own her and be owned by her.

Claire’s moans became louder, her nails raking his skin. When he heard her calling his name, like a Siren luring him in oblivion, he couldn’t help himself anymore.

He lost himself inside her, feeling her pulsing, throbbing wet around him. With Claire quivering beneath him, her beautiful face glowing, he let the wave of feelings drown him.

In this moment, safe inside her, he realized the very essence of his existence. He was to be hers; to cherish and protect her, to love her with every beat of his heart.

 

Later that night, in the dim moonlight of Claire’s bedroom, Jamie closed his eyes, smelled her untamed dark curls and pulled her closer to him. Breathing fully for the first time since he was a boy, he whispered to her sleeping form.

“I found you mo nighean donn. I finally found you and I’m not letting you go.”

 

***

 

_1 year later_

 

“Jamie? Are you still not ready? We’re running late.”

“Aye, in a minute!” Jamie said, still hidden so Claire couldn’t figure out what his costume was.

“You better be, because if not, I’m not coming,” Claire said, looking longingly towards the couch. With a sigh, she slipped her cell in her dress’s pocket and took the apple from the counter.

“Oh, yes ye’re coming. Come on babe, we had fun last year, no?” She heard Jamie’s voice from their bedroom.

“Indeed we had,” Claire murmured and grinned like a fool.

A scream let her mouth when Jamie had materialized out of nowhere behind her and without giving her time to react, he bit her apple.

“Good God, Jamie!” she said with her hand on her chest. “Now I have to replace it with a new one!” she continued annoyed, starting towards the fridge for a new apple but stopped abruptly.

“Bloody hell!” she said laughing. “Really, love? Batman?”

“Aye! Give me some more of this apple, my fair Snow White and I promise I’ll save you from all witches and dwarfs” Jamie said and tried winking at her - failing miserably.

“The dwarfs were good, you oaf.”

“With you looking so bonny tonight Sassenach, I’m not willing to let anyone around you –dwarf or no.”

“Mmm…” Claire wiggled her eyebrows playfully. “Are so sure you want to go, my Dark Knight?”

With mischief and desire in her eyes she ran her index finger down on his chest.

“If ye continue doing this, Sassenach, I canna promise a thing. So let’s go now”

“Okay,” Claire sighed, admitting her defeat “Just don’t throw yourself from the library’s railing trying to rescue me from possible seducers. I don’t want to have you injured in my bed tonight. It will ruin my plans” she warned with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, so you do have plans for the night this year as well. Involving a book again?” Jamie smiled and trapped her in a bear hug to stop her roaming hands.

“Just wait and you’ll see,” she said biting his neck before he turned to open the door.

“Damned if I won’t,” Jamie whispered with his eyes full of love and led her to their first masquerade party as a couple, at their first anniversary.

 

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> The voice recognition elevator part is inspired from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8!  
> Enjoy! :)


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